Identity rereferencing : the presentation and evaluation of a narrative map for therapeutic practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

This study introduces a map for a therapeutic conversation and assesses its effectiveness. The evidence for this proposal is provided by the study reported, in which a number of measures were taken to ascertain whether the therapeutic process promoted useful change in clients with maladaptive assumptive systems (problem narratives), and whether those changes were sustained over time. Nine clients out of a sample of twenty- three responded and all nine respondents reported sustained changes over a period of 6-24 months. Michael White (2007) suggests that Narrative maps are few, but are important so that processes used by clinicians do not become lost, and are at the same time able to be evaluated, assessed and implemented by other professionals. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken to analyse the adaptive client narratives that occurred immediately post therapy, and which remained 6 - 24 months later. A number of themes emerged that revealed a spiritual or ‘wairua’ approach to assuming the adaptive narrative, and there was evidence to suggest that a more resourceful state of beingness (adaptive identity) had emerged and evolved as a result this. The themes point to new initiatives for dealing with the problem emerging via the processes of innovative moments and adaptive reframing. The proposed therapeutic map appeared to be successful and empowering for the respondents as they came to understand they have the power to ‘change the meaning they had assigned to the problem issue, without being defined by the problem issue as they were previously’. The individual seems to be able to perceive the problem through the eyes of the all-knowing self (higher self or spiritual self). When the meaning making and reconstruction emerges from within the client in this way, the writer proposes change is both significant and lasting- Identity Re- Referencing. It is not known if the clients who did not respond did so because they did not experience significant change, however the results would suggest that further research is warranted

Deep Multi-view Models for Glitch Classification

Non-cosmic, non-Gaussian disturbances known as "glitches", show up in gravitational-wave data of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or aLIGO. In this paper, we propose a deep multi-view convolutional neural network to classify glitches automatically. The primary purpose of classifying glitches is to understand their characteristics and origin, which facilitates their removal from the data or from the detector entirely. We visualize glitches as spectrograms and leverage the state-of-the-art image classification techniques in our model. The suggested classifier is a multi-view deep neural network that exploits four different views for classification. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model improves the overall accuracy of the classification compared to traditional single view algorithms.Comment: Accepted to the 42nd IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP'17

Linguistic consequences of toing and froing:Factors that modulate narrative development in bilingual returnee children

This longitudinal study examined the development of narrative micro- and macrostructure in Japanese-English bilingual returnee children. Returnees are children of immigrant families who move to a foreign country, spending a significant portion of their formative developmental years in the foreign majority language context before returning to their native language environment. The returnees did a narrative task in both their L1 (Japanese) and L2 (English) immediately upon their return to their native language environment and a year after. The results showed no aggregate significant changes in L1 or L2 micro- and macrostructure over time. However, at the individual level, the degree of maintenance of L2 microstructure was modulated by L2 exposure. That is, children who continued to receive L2 exposure better maintained their English microstructure (i.e. Type-Token Ratio and Verbs per Utterance) despite being re-immersed in the L1 environment. In terms of their Japanese, the age of return to the L1 environment and relative proficiency predicted the development of their Japanese microstructure (i.e. MLU, Fluency, Type-Token Ratio) and macrostructure. Our study is the first to track both languages of bilingual returnee children over time, revealing that different background variables affect the change in returnee children’s L1 and L2 narrative abilities

Reflections on offering a therapeutic creative arts intervention with cult survivors:A collective biography

A new, evidence-based, multimodal, and creative psychological therapy, Arts for the Blues, was piloted with survivors of cultic abuse in a workshop within a conference setting. The five facilitators, who occupied diverse roles and perspectives within the workshop and research project, reflected on heir experiences of introducing this novel intervention to the cult-survivor population. In this underreported territory of using structured, arts-based, psychological therapy with those who have survived cultic abuse, the authors used a process of collective biography to compile a first person, combined narrative based on those reflections. This approach allows for a visceral insight into the dynamics and obstacles encountered, and the counter transference responses of the facilitators. This reflexive process shined a light into aspects of research and practice that were not all visible to the individual researchers previously, with implications for research ethics, psychological therapy, and creative arts within the cult-survivor field

Selective anti-malarial minor groove binders

A set of 31 DNA minor groove binders (MGBs) with diverse structural features relating to both physical chemical properties and DNA binding sequence preference has been evaluated as potential drugs to treat Plasmodium falciparum infections using a chloroquine sensitive strain (3D7) and a chloroquine resistant strain (Dd2) in comparison with human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells as an indicator of mammalian cell toxicity. MGBs with an alkene link between the two N-terminal building blocks were demonstrated to be most active with IC50 values in the range 30–500 nM and therapeutic ratios in the range 10–>500. Many active compounds contained a C-alkylthiazole building block. Active compounds with log D7.4 values of approximately 3 or 7 were identified. Importantly the MGBs tested were essentially equally effective against both chloroquine sensitive and resistant strains. The results show that suitably designed MGBs have the potential for development into clinical candidates for antimalarial drugs effective against resistant strains of Plasmodia

Social tourism and self-efficacy: Exploring links between tourism participation, job-seeking and unemployment

Social tourism is assumed to provide important psychological benefits for economically and socially disadvantaged populations. This study examines empirically whether these individual benefits are associated with socioeconomic benefits to society by focusing on unemployed individuals. Psychological benefits are addressed in terms of self-efficacy, and socioeconomic benefits, in terms of job-search behaviour. Findings from mixed-methods data reveal that holidays create enabling environments, which bring about positive changes in participants’ self-efficacy, contributing to positive effects on their job-search behaviour. Positive effects are also identified with regard to behaviours towards alternative paths to employment, such as volunteering. Given that these behavioural changes comprise major determinants of reemployment, it is suggested that social tourism may hold potential for incorporation into existing unemployment policies

An Evaluation of U.S. National Wildlife Refuge Planning for Off-Road Vehicle Use

Off-road vehicles (hereafter, ORVs) rank high among public-land management challenges because they are popular, often impair environmental conditions, and may cause conflicts with other recreational users. Unit-level planning for federal lands increasingly translates broad, system-wide objectives, such as maintenance of ecological integrity, into place-based limitations on ORV use to minimize and mitigate adverse impacts on wildlife. We reviewed 176 planning documents covering 313 National Wildlife Refuges (hereafter, Refuges) to understand how planning supports or undermines ORV recreation management. These plans offer an important perspective on ORV management because the Refuges are a large, diverse system of conservation lands where recreation may be permitted only where it is compatible with wildlife protection. Of the plans we evaluated, 24% mentioned ORV use and 12% prescribed some action related to ORVs. The most common prescriptions banned ORV use or limited it to mobility-impaired hunters. Many plans lacked clarity or documentation of analysis in discussing ORV recreation. When analyses grouped ORV use with other activities, such as hunting or other modes of transportation, they often failed to consider the characteristic effects of ORV use. Regardless of how ORV use was categorized, evaluation of its effects seldom considered the full range of environmental impacts documented in the scientific literature. Published research recommends many best practices for managing ORV use and impacts. Though some are habitat specific, five general best-practice categories highlight where planning connects with and diverges from common recommendations. Other land management agencies offer helpful models for implementing these practices in planning. We suggest that public land managers employ tools from each of the five categories: policy formation and public participation, spatial and temporal route planning, permitting, monitoring, and enforcement. The plan prescriptions we examined were strongest in their efforts at route planning. Refuge prescriptions have the most room to improve in detailing how they can work with neighbors and external stakeholders in formulating ORV-use rules